Constellations stories in the Peak Lodge sky

Aboriginal people, like so many cultures around the world, spent much of their life living under the light of the night sky. Like a giant dot-to-dot, they would create pictures with the stars they saw. These pictures became what we now know as constellations. There are 88 recognised constellations in the night sky. Of those 88 constellations, over 50 of them exist in the Southern Hemisphere.

Aboriginal people believe that the stars are the campfires of our ancestors. In the beginning there was only darkness. There was no such thing as mountains or rivers or streams. The Tjukuritja (pronounced Chook-a-ridge-a), the ancestral beings, created everything that we see. They were so exhausted from their efforts after the creation that their physical bodies passed away. Their spiritual bodies became a part of the things that they created: they became the mountains, they became the rivers, they became the stars. They say that when we pass away, we will become a part of the stars as well.

In the time of the Tjukuritja, it was believed that we were not restricted by our physical bodies; that people were able to walk across the sky as easily as we were able to walk across the land. The Tjukuritja were shapeshifters. They had the ability to become whatever form they wanted, changing from animal to human and human to mineral or plant. It is for this reason that some of the stories Aboriginal people tell include both the sky and the land. We are fortunate to have one of those stories written into the mountain landscape in front of Peak Lodge.

2.The Milky Way – Photo by Andy Schneider on Unsplash

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Ardour Lilianfels Blue Mountains

Ardour Hotels & Estates

Blue Mountains, NSW

3.The Milky Way – Photo by Andy Schneider on Unsplash

Orion was not always seen as a great hunter by different Aboriginal language groups. The groups of Cape York in North Queensland saw Orion as something else entirely. They referred to it as Djulpan. Djulpan was a King Fish and the totem animal of the Djulpan clan. Totems are unique among Aboriginal language groups. You inherit one based upon the tribe that you are born into. You will also be gifted one by an Elder throughout your life. Your gifted totem usually relates to a characteristic they feel you possess or need to build upon as a person. This totem is sacred. It is a part of who you are. It becomes your flesh and blood. You are looking after your totem as well as the environments that it exists in. If it is an animal, you would never eat that animal. For the Djulpan clan they were forbidden by cultural law to eat the King Fish.

Taurus the Bull Constellation

The Gods sent Orion into the night sky so that anyone looking upon Orion would be reminded to remain humble and not to be arrogant. They also wanted Orion to remember the lesson that he had been taught as he made his immortal travels through the night sky, so they also placed the Scorpion in the sky. The scorpion is what we now know as Scorpius or the Scorpio constellation; one of our zodiac constellations. It is interesting that Orion was once the hunter and the Scorpion once the hunted. In this story the scorpion became the hunter and Orion became the hunted. That eternal battle between predator and prey continues today. It is rare to see Scorpio and Orion in the night sky at the same time.

4.The Milky Way – Photo by Andy Schneider on Unsplash

Coastal Aboriginal people saw the diamond shape of the cross as a stingray swimming through the great ocean of the sky, the Milky Way, being chased by two sharks, Alpha and Beta Centauri. In central Australia they saw the Southern Cross as the footprint of the Wedge Tail Eagle, the largest predatory bird in Australia. It has three toes that point upwards and one toe that points downwards, so it looks like a cross.

The two pointer stars were the fire sticks of the Wedge Tail Eagle, which he used to cook his prey. Underneath the Southern Cross and to the left hand side exists an oval shape in the night sky where there are no stars. This is known as the Coal-sack Nebulae. The Coal-sack Nebulae is a giant celestial dust cloud. This dust cloud is so thick that it stops the light from the stars behind it from penetrating through. That is why we see it as a black space in the night sky. This is said to be the nest of the Wedge Tail Eagle.

This Coal-sack Nebulae forms the head of a much larger constellation known as a Dark Constellation. Unlike most other cultures around the world, Aboriginal people did not just make pictures with the stars, they made pictures with the black spaces in between the stars as well. This is what we call a Dark Constellation. The most famous of these Dark Constellations for the Aboriginal people is that of the Emu in the sky. You need a full sky night to be able to see the Emu. The Coal-sack Nebulae forms the head of the Emu. If you trace the dark space through the two Pointer Stars, you will see the neck of the Emu. Following it around to the Scorpio constellation you will see the large oval shape of the back and the belly of the Emu. And extending through the tail of Scorpio are the two legs of the Emu.

They all line up in an arc across the sky – a giant celestial dust cloud extending through the tail of Scorpio.

Coastal Aboriginal people saw the diamond shape of the cross as a stingray swimming through the great ocean of the sky, the Milky Way, being chased by two sharks, Alpha and Beta Centauri. In central Australia they saw the Southern Cross as the footprint of the Wedge Tail Eagle, the largest predatory bird in Australia. It has three toes that point upwards and one toe that points downwards, so it looks like a cross.

This Coal-sack Nebulae forms the head of a much larger constellation known as a Dark Constellation. Unlike most other cultures around the world, Aboriginal people did not just make pictures with the stars, they made pictures with the black spaces in between the stars as well. This is what we call a Dark Constellation. The most famous of these Dark Constellations for the Aboriginal people is that of the Emu in the sky. You need a full sky night to be able to see the Emu. The Coal-sack Nebulae forms the head of the Emu. If you trace the dark space through the two Pointer Stars, you will see the neck of the Emu. Following it around to the Scorpio constellation you will see the large oval shape of the back and the belly of the Emu. And extending through the tail of Scorpio are the two legs of the Emu.